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We The People Have Found Our Voice (Occupy Wall Street)

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Inside Story: Rage vs. Corporate Greed on Wall Street -with Guests: Dean Baker, Charlie Wolf, Camille Rivera

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Ralph Nader

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Bernie Sanders

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Cornell West

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Noam Chomsky

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Bad federal policy and intensifying storms are washing away the rich dark soils in the Midwest that made this country an agricultural powerhouse and that remain the essential foundation of a healthy and sustainable food system in the future. The Environmental Working Group produced this short film with Atlas Films that provides stark images illustrating how federal farm subsidies and ethanol mandates, piled on top of skyrocketing crop prices are supporting an intensive monoculture that kneecaps any hope for a more resilient and diverse food and farm system.

Source: www.ewg.org/losingground

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WHAT IS IN THIS CLASS?

This is a five-day permaculture workshop on land remediation and watershed restoration, that includes working with forest, grazing and farmland. The class will held be on the Navajo Reservation near Window Rock, Arizona. Students will participate in various restoration techniques. This class is recommended for land owners, dryland farmers and ranchers, land restoration specialists, students of ecological design and biology, watershed management specialists, and permaculture graduates interested in dryland sustainability.

The days will be spent in classroom discussion and practical work on the land, examining past mistakes and successes; learning principles and practical applications of building soil, increasing biodiversity, arresting soil erosion, and harvesting rainwater to sustain plants, animals and the local community. From building small erosion control structures, to planting, thinning, mulching, digging swales, spreading seeds, sculpting the land this class provides a wealth of knowledge on broadscale land restoration from a permaculture perspective.

Permaculture Institute, USA

President Obama has affirmed his commitment to support clean energy initiatives — like wind and solar power with the goal of reducing U.S. dependence on foreign oil. And a non-profit group in Denver is working with VA to train Americas Veterans for jobs in the emerging Green Collar industry.

Source: Dept Vet Affiars

Founded in 2008, Veterans Green Jobs operates programs in a variety of green jobs fields, including home energy efficiency, renewable energy, land conservation and urban forestry. We believe that our nation’s military vets, equipped with the skills, tools and resources, can lead America’s transition to energy independence, ecological restoration, community renewal and economic prosperity.

Source: Veterans Green Jobs

I have enrolled to study Environmental Management and Technology at Merritt College in Oakland in San Francisco Bay Area. Am looking forward greatly to learning from the landscape horticulture (permaculture) and environmental management schools within Merritt itself. I was at the campus earlier in the year and its a great site and facility.

Arrive August the 2nd and start on August 23rd.

Big ups to Chris at the Peralta international education office for his help in navigating the application process.

www.ecomerritt.org and /www.merrittlandhort.com

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USSF People’s Movement Assemblies: Easy as ABC! from US Social Forum on Vimeo.

What’s the US Social Forum About? from US Social Forum on Vimeo.

Living Through Madness. A New Detroit is On It’s Way – USSF2010 from US Social Forum on Vimeo.

Dick Durbin Democratic majority whip and sponsor of S.510 insists that every Senator had enough time to read a 3,427 page omnibus spending bill…over a period of “46 hrs. and 8 minutes.” That would equate to reading 1 1/4 pages of the bill every minute for 46 hrs and 8 minutes straight. Did you read the bill Sen. Durbin?

http://metavid.org/wiki/S._510:_FDA_Food_Safety_Modernization_Act

Action Alert:

Rescue Local/Organic Farming in the Food Safety Bill!

Urgent—Call your Senator Today

Next week, as early as Tuesday, April 13, the U.S. Senate is expected to vote on a sweeping overhaul of federal food safety law – S. 510. The House food safety bill passed last year (HR 2749) included several measures that threaten small-scale organic producers, including a registration fee of $500 and blanket application of complicated monitoring and traceability standards — regardless of one’s farm size.

There’s no doubt that industrial agriculture needs better oversight. But, family-scale local and organic farms are probably the safest in the nation — they are part of the solution, not part of the problem – and need to be protected!

Now is your chance, as a supporter of sustainable family farming, to help fix these problems! Senator Tester (D-MT), a certified organic farmer himself, is proposing an amendment to S. 510 that would exempt small-scale farmers and food processors from the most burdensome regulations.

We need your help TODAY, please call your U.S. Senators in support of these proposals.

The vast majority of recent food safety scandals in the U.S. — E. coli on fresh spinach, melamine in dairy products, Salmonella in peanut butter — were all linked to industrial agribusiness practices, and these large-scale operations clearly warrant more federal food safety oversight and strict enforcement action. What is NOT needed is a “one-size-fits-all” approach that poses unfair costs and onerous reporting on local and organic farmers.

Safer, healthier food options provided by local, organic, and sustainable farmers should not be punished for their responsible work with expensive and complicated new rules. These rules may make industrialized food production safer, but offer no real food safety gains to consumers of local and organic foods. Small-scale operations are already subject to adequate regulation by local and state agencies. Smaller farm size inherently poses less risk (they are almost always owner-operated), and direct marketing also offers consumers better quality food with more transparency and accountability — and easy traceability.

Taking Action is Easy:

Call your Senators today, and tell them that you support Senator Tester’s amendment to S. 510.

To reach your state’s Senators,

1. Search his/her phone number online: http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

2. Or call the Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121.

Sample Talking Points:

Specific talking points you can share with your Senators from Tester’s proposed amendment to S. 510 include:

1) With respect to the hazard analysis and risk-based preventive controls, add the following new section to Section 103:

(l) EXEMPTION FOR CERTAIN FACILITIES – This section shall not apply to a facility for a year if the average annual adjusted gross income of such facility for the previous three-year period was less than $500,000.

2) With respect to traceability, add the following new section to Section 204:

(f) EXEMPTION FOR CERTAIN FACILITIES – The traceback and recordkeeping requirements under this section shall not apply to a facility for a year if the adjusted gross income of such facility for the previous year was less than $500,000.

With respect to the produce standards, add the following new section to Section 105:

(g) EXCEPTION FOR DIRECT MARKET FARMS – This section shall not apply to farms whose annual value of sales of food products directly to consumers, hotels, restaurants, or institutions exceeds the annual value of sales of food products to all other buyers.

Thanks for your support of organic, local and sustainable farmers!

The full action alert can be viewed at: http://www.cornucopia.org/2010/04/action-alert-rescue-localorganic-farming-in-the-food-safety-bill/#more-2770

The Cornucopia Institute P.O. Box 126 Cornucopia, WI 54827 www.cornucopia.org